Battle of Bataan

Japanese tank column advancing in Bataan

Date	7 January – 9 April 1942 (3 months and 2 days)
Location	Bataan Peninsula near Manila Bay in Luzon Island, Philippines
Result	Japanese victory Bataan Death March

Belligerents

United States

Philippines

Japan

Commanders and leaders

Douglas MacArthur

Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV

Strength

120,000 U.S. and Filipino troops

75,000 Japanese troops

Casualties and losses

105,000
10,000 killed,
20,000 wounded,
76,000 imprisoned

8,406-22,250
3,107 killed,
230 missing,
5,069 wounded,

United States

The Battle of Bataan (7 January – 9 April 1942) was a battle that represented the most intense phase of Imperial Japan's invasion of the Philippines during World War II. In January 1942, forces of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded Luzon along with several islands in the Philippine Archipelago after the bombing of the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The commander-in-chief of all Filipino and American forces in the islands, General Douglas MacArthur, consolidated all of his Luzon-based units on the Bataan Peninsula to fight against the Japanese invaders. By this time, the Japanese controlled nearly all of Southeast Asia. The Bataan peninsula and the island of Corregidor were the only remaining Allied strongholds in the region. Despite a lack of supplies, Filipino and American forces managed to fight the Japanese for three months, engaging them initially in a fighting retreat southward. As the combined Filipino and American forces made a last stand, the delay cost the Japanese valuable time and prevented immediate victory across the Pacific. The surrender at Bataan, with 76,000 soldiers surrendering in the Philippines altogether, was the largest in American and Filipino military histories, and was the largest United States surrender since the American Civil War's Battle of Harper's Ferry. Soon afterwards, Filipino and American prisoners of war were forced into the Bataan Death March.

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